Four Sandwiches, Four Faces

There are four Glatts. Each one started from something you can order at a counter, and the translation was more literal than you might expect.

The Bagel

An oatmeal dial with a stamped sponge texture, black printing, matte black hands and a single mustard second hand. The texture is the point. Look closely and the surface has the open, uneven crumb of a bagel cut in half. Paired with a tan strap, it is the warmest of the four and the easiest to wear with almost anything.

Pastrami on Rye

Matte black dial, mustard hands, black Horween strap. This is the one that reads as a watch first and a reference second, which is why it tends to be the one people pick when they are buying their first Glatt. The mustard is doing a lot of work against the black, exactly as it does on the plate.

The Half Sour

A pickle-green dial with white printing, white hands, and a matching Horween strap. Green dials have been fashionable for a while now and most of them are hunter or British racing. This one is deliberately not. It is the green of a barrel pickle that has not been in the brine very long, which is a stranger and better colour.

Black Cherry Soda

Burgundy dial, chocolate strap, white hands. The deepest and most formal of the four from a distance, and the least formal once you know what it is named after. It is the one that looks most expensive in a photograph.

What they share

Same 316L steel case, same NH35 automatic, same flat sapphire, same quick-release Horween strap, same ticket date window at six o'clock with TAKE A NUMBER printed beneath it. The differences are all on the surface, which is the correct place for them.

People ask which to get. The honest answer is that the dial you keep coming back to in the photographs is the one you will wear, and that is a better guide than anything we could tell you.